As any mother of a seven-year-old would be, Melissa Knutson was a little taken aback when she overheard her daughter Brenlyn asking for “pagina covers.” She told her grandma it was all she wanted this Christmas.
“Pagina covers! What in the heck are those?” thought Melissa, before piecing together what her 7-year-old was actually trying to convey in ‘kid speak’:
“I’m not sure how she translated personal care products to pads and tampons. And actually, she was calling them ‘Pagina Covers,’ and so we started this as, what are pagina covers? Why is she asking for…and then I realized what she was actually asking for, but that was…her child way of saying pads and tampons.”
Melissa then recalled the poverty simulation she took her daughters on recently, and Brenlyn’s seemingly bizarre request all started to click into place.
“I’m a part of the West Des Moines Leadership Academy right now, and so we spent a day doing a poverty simulation and then we toured their donation sites at the Human Services site in West Des Moines,” said Melissa. “And so they gave us a tour and were telling us what their needs were at the time, and one of the big support items that they had were personal care items.”
It turns out, Brenlyn was more attentive during the tour than her mama thought. Her little heart just broke for all the women who couldn’t afford their own feminine products, so she wanted to sacrifice her own Christmas wishlist for the sake of those in need.
It was a mighty bold and admirable act for a second-grader who would typically be fantasizing about Barbies and dollhouses under the tree.
